


We Keep Moving Forward

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: ;), Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, M/M, Slight Manga Spoilers, angst ig, erens lw underage but there's nothing graphic, except for the obvious creative liberties, im clueless but i like character development, still sus lol sorry mom, takes place during 4-year timeskip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-25 21:44:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18171824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: His eyes, Levi thinks. Sometimes they look greyer than mine.





	We Keep Moving Forward

**Author's Note:**

> first work in the fandom :o i read the manga way too fast just this week and just got real into it. eren might be a punk ass but his character development is too interesting for me to stay away from so.. enjoy 
> 
> \+ sorry if my timeline is Whack im real bad at that sorta thing ':)

"Your hair's getting long."

Eren didn't react to the sudden break of the silence. He continues looking forward out the window, responding with a curt, "trying something new."

Levi tsks and hoists himself up onto his elbow, glancing languidly up and down Eren's back. The kid's scrappy brown hair barely brushed over the tips of his shoulders, which were accented with muscle definition that got more prominent every year.

 _Every year, huh?_ Levi thinks. _It's only been one and a half._

When Eren turns to face him and gave him a small smile, he could see that the boy had aged far past the year and a half that he's known him. Sure, he's still and will always be a brat, the fire that's rooted in him burns as bright as ever, but his eyes have dulled down in the slightest bit. The smile didn't quite reach them they way it did a year and a half ago.

Levi returns a smile, or what he can attempt of one, and curses the world for snatching up that tinge of color from Eren's eyes.

"Are you alright?" Eren asks with a yawn. He lays back down onto the bed but stays atop the covers, sprawling his nude self over the sheets and stretching his limbs without a hint of modesty.

Levi refocuses. "Yes," he says, standing up and throwing on a shirt and some dark jeans. "Just tired is all. Don't have half the stamina I used to have for the sort of thing we pulled last night," he says, stuffing his arms in his small black jacket.

"Oh of course, because me riding you for a good 5 minutes before you finished unannounced must've been so very strenuous on your part," Eren counters, having not moved an inch since Levi last looked back at him.

"Watch it, brat," he says, pulling on his socks. After a moment, he lets out an amused huff in defeat. "And do wash those sheets. Or perhaps incinerate them. Whatever to get the smell out of this room as soon as possible."

"Sir yes sir," Eren chants, moving to stand right in front of Levi and reaches down and adjusts the collar on Levi's shirt. He steps back to take in Levi's silhouette, but smirks a little deviously as he movs back into the captain's space to undo one of his shirt buttons. 

Levi scoffs and pushes him away, moving to fix his hair in the old mirror perched on his dresser, "hands off, you gremlin," he said.

"If anyone's the gremlin here, it's you."

Levi rolls his eyes. "Back to jabbing at my height again now, are we?" 

Eren snorts. "'Ts not my fault I didn't stop growing at age 9," he remarked.

"And what was that, 4 years ago for you?"

"Hey, you're not that far off," Eren replied.

Levi shudders. "Don't remind me."

Eren throws his head back in a laugh.

This was easy. This was a good morning. Levi would stare at Eren's ass that he refused to clothe until noon and Eren would yell at him for doing so and Levi would smile at him and they could relax. They didn't have to hold their breaths, they could breathe for once. And they would breathe into each other's mouths like their lives depended on it. That was a good morning.

Not every morning was a good morning.

Years go by and people change. One would think Levi of all individuals should understand that. Time passes and things just can't stay the same.

One of his weaknesses, he reckons, is relying too heavily on the normalcy of the life he lives in the Survey Corps. Everyday there's a new leaf turned over, there's a new goal put into place, people fight, people die, life goes on.

He's so accustomed to being alone and functioning alone. He can't rely on anything besides his own instincts and orders from above because anything can happen. And anything _has_ happened. So, when he looks around him and sees a lot of the same faces he's seen for the last one and a half years are still there, still present, still in his life everyday, it's strange.

He's familiar with the coming and going of people, he's witnessed that his whole life. He's unfamiliar, however, with the way that they grow. When they're not sent to their deaths, when they _live_ , they grow. They change.

 _Everyone changes but him,_ he thinks. _Perks of already being an old man._

 

* * *

 

"You're hair's getting longer," Levi says again at some other time.

"What are you, a broken record? That's gotta be the third time you've commented on that," Eren says, characteristically defensive. He runs his hand through his hair, which at this point is long enough to part and tuck behind an ear.

 _He's growing too_ , Levi realizes embarassingly abruptly. His increasingly greasy hair sure is, but the boy he's been taking advantage of for quite some time is undoubtedly becoming a man.

Levi looks at Eren's features, all sharp edges and solid lines. Little resemblance to the soft jaw and baby fat-filled cheeks that surfaced just a few years prior. Eren's got scars and muscles, hair and height. He's got to be at least 8cm taller by now. It's infuriating to say the least.

Levi must have muttered that last bit out loud, because Eren laughs and nods.

"My father was a pretty tall guy. I thought he might've been a titan himself as a kid," he says, looking down at his hands. _Large hands_ , some part of Levi's brain notes. They're calloused and rough. Long fingers with oddly prominent knuckles. Eren rubs at his eye with the back of his palm and sighs. "Turns out I wasn't far off at all."

Eren's speech and behaviors, though, are even more starkly different than his appearance. Levi would never call Eren Yeager reserved, the kid probably lacks the capacity to be so altogether, but the initial kicking and shouting, pledging to kill all the titans spiel had been informally retired. Levi knows he still has those core beliefs, but he can't help but wonder what exactly goes on in that head of his when Eren stares off into space with that _look_  on his face. It's very focused. Very calculated. Determination is still there--it never left. He must have different motivations, though. Different intentions. But something must have changed.

Eren is snarky, vexing, disorderly, maddening and mad; he jumps to conclusions, makes poor decisions, and can overall be a pain in the ass. Everyone on Paradis knows that. Yet, there's something in him that's changed--something in him that's dark, something that clouds and obscures the image of the Eren he'd met just a year and a half ago.

Eren looks down at him. Levi met his stare.

 _His eyes_ , Levi thinks. _Sometimes they look greyer than mine._

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr- tatakaudrey ( ˘ω˘ )


End file.
